Connecting with Consumers: Carbetarians Unite!

Leaving the farm during wheat harvest isn't standard operating procedure. Well, unless it's a flying trip to the parts counter. (Is it a bad thing when they call you by name when you walk in the door of the Case dealership? Yes, yes, it is. But it happens when you visit the parts counter three times in 24 hours.)

Anyway, on June 17, I didn't make a parts run or a grocery store stop. I drove 2 3/4 hours (one way) to Manhattan for the National Festival of Breads.

I could say it was for these two cuties. But in reality, they live in Manhattan and were going with their mom and dad anyway.

 

Plus, they know a little bit about wheat after visiting Grandpa Randy's and Grandma Kim's farm during harvest and having specially-designed reading material about farm life from Grandma.

I try to do my part in connecting the farm with consumers through blogging, something I've done since beginning Kim's County Line in January 2010. But face-to-face interaction is better in the long run. So I spent some time on Saturday, June 17, in the children's activities area of the National Festival of Breads. (I actually worked with the two ladies below, and yes, I intentionally moved out of the photo when it was taken.)

Photos from Kansas Wheat

With all the gluten-free promotion and companies marketing "non-GMO" to consumers, it's important for those of us in production agriculture to tell our stories. Goodness knows, popular restaurants and so-called nutrition experts aren't shy about doing it.  (For the record, there is no GMO wheat commercially available at this time. And yes, those with celiac disease must avoid gluten. However, many of those who don't have celiac disease avoid gluten based on inaccurate information from non-medical professionals who make unsubstantiated claims.)

So I was glad to do my part to develop a new generation of "Carbetarians" at the National Festival of Breads by baking up silver-dollar-sized pancakes featuring three grains grown in Kansas - wheat, soy and corn.  The smell of freshly-baked pancakes had little consumers and their families lining up for a nibble.

The children also got to mix together the dry ingredients to take home to use to make their own pancakes.

Kinley and Brooke already help in the kitchen at home, but I hope it gave other children - and their families - a glimpse of using Kansas-produced commodities to make nutritious, cost-conscious meals at home.

Our daughter Jill also helped behind the scenes in the afternoon, setting up and cleaning up for the on-stage demonstrations.

She grew up on a farm and is a dietitian who went to school for five years to study nutrition and the role it plays in our lives. She promotes eating a balanced diet, all things in moderation, including carbohydrates and gluten.

Earlier in the week, Kinley and Brooke had experienced harvesting the wheat with Grandpa Randy.

The girls learned that Mommy had driven the truck during harvest during her high school years. But at the Festival of Breads, the girls - and other children - tried their hand at grinding wheat with a mortar and pestle. 

They tried a hand grinder ...

... and then an electric grinder, taking on milling in miniature and making whole wheat flour.

While our two granddaughters had just ridden a combine that week at our Central Kansas farm and have a tangential connection to Kansas agriculture, fewer and fewer consumers do these days. In 1870, 50 percent of the U.S. population was directly involved in agriculture. Today, farm families comprise less than 2 percent of the population.

So, in a nutshell, that's why I left the farm during the middle of wheat harvest. (I left the noon meal in the slow cooker and had the supper coolers packed and in the fridge, ready for the guys to grab at noon. Randy worked it out so they could be in the same general area and didn't need to move repeatedly during the day. And we all hoped and prayed for no breakdowns since the go-fer parts runner was hours from home. Thankfully, all that worked out.)

Timing for the festival is a legitimate question, and one that I heard on Sunday at church.

"Why would they schedule a Festival of Breads in Kansas during wheat harvest? Aren't people too busy? Doesn't it make it harder to involve farm families?"

Yes, summer is busy. Yes, it does make it harder to involve farm families. But, yes, it makes perfect sense. If I had any question, it was answered as I talked to some of the eight finalists.

Photo from the Kansas Wheat Facebook page

The day before the baking competition, the contestants traveled to a wheat farm near Brookville in Central Kansas. They took turns riding a John Deere combine as it "ate" its way across a golden field of ripened wheat. For most of them, it was their first time on a farm, their first ride on a combine and the first time they'd had a chance to talk directly to a farmer about producing the wheat that will eventually end up in the flour they'll put in their shopping carts and make into meals for their families and entries for the cooking contests they love.

Lunch for contestants and others in a farm shed on June 16, 2017 - From Kansas Wheat's Facebook page

After I completed my volunteer time in the children's area at the Festival, I talked to several of the finalists as they made their winning recipes three times during the day.

Cleveland, Ohio, baker Michele Kusma was ready for a job on a farm during wheat harvest. I told her it could be arranged.

She and the other finalists will go back to their homes in Maryland, Ohio, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Utah, Missouri and Minnesota with a story to tell.  The people in their communities may actually listen to them more readily. They can tell about their trip to a Kansas farm. They can share their memories of hospitality offered by Kansans and farm families. 

And that's why I left home during harvest to go, as did several of my fellow producers.

Here's the recipe for the pancakes we served. (I should have taken more photos, but I was too busy mixing ingredients and making pancakes)! For recipes from the finalists and more bread baking tips, visit the National Festival of Breads website.

Three-Grain Pancakes

From the National Festival of Breads

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups soy milk or regular milk
1 tbsp. corn oil
3 tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients and mix well. Add wet ingredients to dry all at once. Whisk until blended and still a little lumpy.

Pour 1/8 cup batter onto a hot, lightly greased frying pan or griddle. Flip when pancake has bubbly surface and slightly dry edges.

When cooked through, remove pancakes. Serve with butter, maple syrup, jelly, etc., if desired.

Rising to the Occasion: National Festival of Breads

Ronna Farley and her Seeded Corn and Onion Bubble Loaf.

Ronna Farley had a big smile on her face when I visited her kitchen at the Festival of Breads competition last Saturday. Her first attempt at baking her Seeded Corn and Onion Bubble Loaf had come out of the pan cleanly. If you've ever made anything in a Bundt pan, you know there's no guarantee: Part could end up on the cooling rack while some is stuck in the pan.

But after carefully inching her way around each crook and crevice with an ice pick, the bubble loaf was out in one piece, looking evenly browned and with that unmistakable fragrance of freshly-baked yeast bread combined with an undertone of onion.

She had more reasons to smile that evening. Her Seeded Corn and Onion Bubble Loaf won the grand prize at the 5th biennial National Festival of Breads.

She and seven other finalists spent the time from 7 AM Saturday morning until 2:45 or so that afternoon making their recipes three different times. By 3, each had delivered her best effort to a judge's room for evaluation.

Farley traveled to Kansas from her home in Rockville, Maryland, where she works as a cashier in a grocery store. She gets inspiration for developing original recipes based on the ingredients she rings up for customers as they empty their carts onto the supermarket conveyor belt.

I especially love seeing what people from other countries are buying and the different ideas of ingredients I should try in recipes. Sometimes I'll even ask them, 'What are you doing with that?' or 'What is that?' because there are different things we sell that I don't even know what they are.

Ronna Farley as quoted in the Festival of Breads recipe book

As the 2017 National Festival of Breads champion, Farley received $2,000 cash, plus a trip to attend a baking class of her choice at the King Arthur Flour Baking Education Center in Norwich, Vermont. She will receive 120 envelopes of Red Star Yeast. 

This was Farley's second time as a top eight finalist in the Festival of Breads. Like several of the competitors, she is no stranger to cooking contests.  Patrice Hurd has been chosen as a finalist in a dozen national contests. Three times, she's been a contestant in the "grandmother" of them all - the Pillsbury Bakeoff. Once you've competed a trio of times, you're no longer eligible at Pillsbury. She's also been a finalist in the national beef cookoff, Build A Better Burger and Midwest Living events, among others.

Patrice Hurd and her Toasted Cardamom Nordic Crown.

But Patrice was glad to be back at the National Festival of Breads in Kansas. She was also a finalist in the 2015 contest. This time, her recipe was Toasted Cardamom Nordic Crown. 

"It's a fun hobby to compete in these contests," Patrice said. "You meet people who are just as crazed about doing this as I am. We get to know one another, and it's kind of like family when we get together."

There's a family feel to the National Festival of Breads competition itself, she said. 

"At the Pillsburg Bakeoff, there are 100 finalists, so you're basically a number," Patrice said Saturday as she worked on her bread recipe. "This contest (Festival of Breads) has so much heart and a real down-home feeling. I was thrilled to get back here. The organizers take care of every single detail. They do everything to make you feel welcome and make it an experience to remember." 

One of those experiences was her first-ever ride on a combine. Though it was on the schedule in 2015, a drizzly day kept the contestants from truly experiencing a Kansas wheat harvest. This year, Patrice and other contestants traveled on Friday to the Brookville farm of Joe and Geena Kejr where they took turns riding the John Deere combine. They also toured the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center in Manhattan and the Farmer Direct Foods Inc. flour mill in New Cambria. It gave them a glimpse at how wheat grown and harvested in Kansas ultimately becomes flour that can be used in their kitchens scattered across the U.S.

Michele Kusma with her Mexican Street Corn Skillet Bread.

Contestant Michele Kusma from Columbus, Ohio, loved the combine ride, too. This was the first time she was a National Festival of Breads finalist and her first visit to Kansas.

"It was just awesome," Michele bubbled. "It was interesting and beautiful to see the wheat being harvested." 

Michele, too, is a contest veteran. As she developed her recipe for Mexican Street Corn Skillet Bread, she was thinking about flavors that consumers tend to enjoy.

Though she's a contest pro now, she didn't grow up baking. Michele turned to creating recipes and baking as an outlet after her second bout with breast cancer.

"My mother didn't bake bread. My grandmother didn't bake bread. It was me and YouTube," Michele said with a laugh. "I love baking, and you might as well love what you do. None of us know how long we have on this earth, so we need to pursue the things that give us joy."

Jane Fry (on the right) and her kitchen assistant look over her Southwest Focaccia.

It definitely wasn't finalist Jane Fry's first time on a combine or in a Kansas wheat field. Jane didn't have to hop on an airplane to get to Manhattan. She was down the road in Elk Falls, Kansas.

Like many Kansas cooks, her love of baking dates back to her days in 4-H. This was her second time as one of the Top 8 in the National Festival of Breads. This time, her recipe was Southwest Focaccia.

Jane isn't just an expert in shaping bread. She and her husband, Steve, also shape stoneware, much with a wheat theme. Each piece is individually made on a potter’s wheel or by other hand methods, glazed, decorated and fired. The business has grown, but remains a small family enterprise to provide the kind of “home-grown” lifestyle. In 1987, Jane incorporated her love for quilts by developing a line of porcelain pins and earrings using traditional quilt patterns as well as original and custom designs, which are sold under the name Elk Falls Piecemakers.

Fellow contestant Kellie White grew up on a farm near Westmoreland, Kansas, though she now resides in Valley Park, Missouri. Her entry, Orange Spice Anadama Wreath with Walnuts and Dates, won the People's Choice award voting the day of the festival. Her Kansas fan club cheered loudly when those results were announced Saturday afternoon. Festival goers could vote for their favorites by depositing $1 in voting jars. Those efforts raised more than $600 for the Flint Hills Bread Basket, a local food pantry.

She credits her love of baking to her mom and also to a neighbor lady named Ethel who shared a day of baking with Kellie as a young girl and also gave their family gifts of homemade bread at Christmas.

One of Shauna Havey's Butternut Romesco Braid's was shaped and rising, while she had another dough rising.

On the other hand, contestant Shauna Havey didn't grow up baking. The Roy, Utah, finalist began experimenting in the kitchen after marrying her husband. The mother of two prefers savory recipes, so she developed Butternut Romesco Braid. 

Pam Correll shapes her Orange Marmalade Breakfast Crescents.

Pam Correll was hoping for a "sweet" victory with her Orange Marmalade Breakfast Crescents. The smells of orange zest and fresh orange juice permeated the work station for the Brockport, Pennsylvania, baker. The FACS teacher enjoys teaching her students to bake from scratch.

"It's becoming a lost art," Correll said. This was the Pennsylvania baker's second time to enter the Festival of Breads, and two of her recipes were awarded honorable mention in 2015. The 2017 contest was her first as one of the eight top finalists.

Turmeric-Rosemary and Sweet Potato Rosettes

Somehow I missed talking to Tiffany Aaron, whose recipe was Turmeric-Rosemary and Sweet Potato Rosettes. Aaron is from Quitman, Arkansas, but she grew up in Montana. In her interview included in the festival brochure, she says her father-in-law supplied all the sweet potatoes she used for her experimentation and recipe development. In 2015, she had won an honorable mention. This year, she only entered the one recipe, but it still got her included in the Top 8. The mother of five brought her middle daughter with her to Kansas to experience all the festival happenings.

The National Festival of Breads, the nation’s only amateur bread-baking competition, is sponsored by King Arthur Flour, Red Star Yeast and the Kansas Wheat Commission. Many more recipes from previous years' contests, as well as bread baking tips, are available at the National Festival of Breads website. Check it out.

***

I volunteered at the festival. Watch for my next blog post about why I took time during our own wheat harvest to travel to Manhattan and help out!
 

Harvest Rhyme Time

At one Kansas farm, it was time to cut wheat

Two young girls, Grandpa Randy did greet.

They arrived with their mom, to the field they did go.

But upon their arrival, winds started to blow.

The skies became dark, though it wasn't at night.

All the lightning around gave Grandma a fright.

No picnic for supper. No stopping to eat.

Get into the combine: It was time to cut wheat!

Off they did go, as the thunder did rumble.

But even before the rain started to tumble

A belt on the combine, it split right in two.

Oh no! Now just what would they do?

A ride in the semi, to Zenith they'd go.

At harvest time, you just go with the flow.

Grandpa would drive them away in a truck.

Before the storm came, if they had any luck!

They rolled into the co-op. The trip it was fine. 

They came to a stop at the end of the line. 

Other farmers had the same plan, it did seem.

Beating the storm was part of their scheme.

The girls waited patiently for their own turn.

Waiting with Grandpa, there was much they could learn.

He answered their questions; he considered each one.

One question? Two questions? No, they were not done!

Then it was time to pull onto the scale.

It was the next spot on the wheat's market trail.

A probe dipped into the semi truck bed.

Took a sample of wheat from that farmstead.

Some tests must be done, co-op workers have said.

They want to make sure it can be made into bread!

Into the elevator, it was a tight squeeze.

But Grandpa could do it. He did it with ease.

Now inside, it was time to dump wheat.

Once it was done, it was time to retreat.

Then the big semi was once again weighed. 

A ticket would reveal if the wheat made the grade.

Yes, it was fine. Yes, it was great!

Once made into flour, it could appear on your plate! 

Since rain sprinkles fell, we quit for the night.

We came to the house for some harvest bites.

The storm had made the girls late for their meal.

So they tore into supper with a great deal of zeal!

Because of the rain, harvest couldn't start soon.

Until the next day, it would be afternoon.

So Grandpa took two little girls to the pond.

Fishing with Grandpa can forge quite a bond.

Kinley had barely cast her line in

When a fish bit her worm, she started to grin. 

For Brooke, it took longer. She had to wait. 

But then she got one, and, boy, was that great!

The sun and the wind, they dried the wheat out.

"We're ready to help Grandpa!" They declared with a shout!

So off they went, down through the field.

Grandpa was hoping for a very good yield!

On the combine, there was a thing called a reel.

It turned through the wheat stalks. It was a pretty big deal.

All of the wheat goes through the machine.

From the stalk and the chaff, the grain then is gleaned.

When the combine tank was all full of grain

We could tell it was, too, through a big window pane.

Grandpa then let us push on some knobs.

The wheat came out of the bin in a pretty big gob!

An auger delivered the grain to the truck. 

Into each corner, the wheat soon was tucked.

When it was full, the truck driver did start

To drive to the co-op to do his own part.

 

It takes all kinds of workers to do all the tasks.

We all try to help Grandpa out when he asks!

Harvest is hard work, so hard that it seems.

A nap is in order. Hope for sweet dreams!

Then it was time for a good harvest meal.

We sat in the car. It was such a great deal.

Our time on the farm had to come to an end.

Until next year, more time we will spend!